Tales from the "Other Side"

The CIM Class of 1990 gave us a career talk earlier today, as part of their 25th anniversary from graduation. I picked up so many lessons from all of the speakers. Of note, here are four practical tips from an alumnus whose name I can't remember. Short background, he topped the Physicians' Licensure Examination (Top 1!) and is currently an internist at the University of Illinois-Chicago:

1) Know Yourself

This tip cannot be overemphasized especially in choosing our specialty in medicine and our path in life, in general. It is not enough to know the specific medical subjects that we excel in. Rather, a holistic self-examination is necessary. What are you good at? What are your weaknesses? Which activities would truly make you happy, enough to make a career, nay a life, out of them?

His anecdote was about his own experience. He liked knowing about the universe - dark matter, stars, and all those celestial bodies of the universe.

Hi, Pluto!

In the same way in medicine, he liked working on the big picture, of seeing his patient as a complete being rather than as an organ system - thus, internal medicine. This is not to say that his path is the only path but to simply cite an example of his point.

2)  Know Your Market

It is an impossible feat to be able to cater to the needs of every individual there can possibly be. This is why you need to select your market, so to speak. Who are the people that you want to provide care for? What is your definition of fulfillment in your career?

3) Bring Yourself Close to Your Target Market

It won't really make much sense if you're a brilliant geriatric physician practicing in a place where the old people are few and far between. Yes, you have something to offer to your target market but where are they, exactly? Remember the 3A's: Accessibility, Affordability, Availability, and 1 Q: Quality.

Practical example for me in the future: I need to be in the community with the people in order to call myself a community doctor. Otherwise, all of my proposed solutions will be idealized and will cater to the imagined community in my head. It will only become a waste of resources. 

In the community, with the people.

4) Chance (but I would like to call this as Divine Intervention)

You know, like how the universe seems to conspire for or against you. Yeah, that one; that no matter how rigidly you plan out your whole life, unforeseen events may occur.

Case in point: the genetic lottery. We had no say with the chromosomes upon conception (no matter how convenient it could've been). There were so many possible adverse outcomes: Down's syndrome, congenital malformations, neural tube defects, trisomy X, and etc., yet Divine Intervention allowed us to become the kind of person that we are now. Realize, though, that the outcomes need not be adverse for they may work in our favor. 

OK, pause and do this with me: marvel at how much can change in a few years. We cannot exactly predict or foresee the future. All we have are the past and the present. What we can do, though, is to notice the patterns of the past, extrapolate it at present and make intelligent guesses of the future.

Inspiration comes just when I need it, even when I do not expect it. I find it truly inspiring whenever I listen to stories of people who made it. They have "tales from the other side", that all of these sacrifices to the point of suffering will make sense in due time. I need to be reminded about that often because (1) I am pretty forgetful, and (2) I tend to dwell on the present situation in my anxiety.

Ahhh, I initially thought that one blogpost is all it takes to unload my mind from what I learned earlier today. My, was I wrong! It has been a while since I wrote anything here anyway, so let's make this into a series of entries, shall we?

I would love to write about my #1 career bucket list item in the next blogpost! P.S. I don't have bucket lists for everything, OK. Just for my career. Haha.

Until the next adventure,

Dena